Houses, And Babies, And Family, Oh My!

**THIS WAS WRITTEN WHILE PB AND I WERE LEAVING PITTSBURGH...I'M LATE GETTING THIS UP!!**

Well, Patrick and I are currently on the road heading towards Nashville, Tennessee yet again, but this time it’s a bit different than normal. We just left our home in Pittsburgh - and for the first time - have rented it out for someone else to live in. Deep down we know this is the smart thing to do financially - as we were carrying 2 mortgages and 2 sets of bills. Even deeper down we know this was always the plan with purchasing our Pittsburgh property, but it still doesn’t make it any easier! I’m super sentimental when it comes to leaving places. I seem to long in rooms that I enjoyed...this is for places I’ve lived and even just places we’ve visited (I so didn’t want to leave our Honeymoon Suite!!!) anything to just stretch out our time in these special places. Patrick and I both kept walking around our empty place...sad! 

We at least had a great trip home filled with all sorts of excitements and we have another trip back already in the works for when Bennett is baptized as Uncle Patrick was asked to be the little guys God Father! Can’t miss that and can't wait to celebrate such a special occasion! 

Here's the recap of our trip...

We came home for the birth of Bennett. He was born early in the morning on March 28th. It was so fun surprising my sister Katie at the hospital and even more fun meeting the little man! I had been there for the birth of each of my nieces and nephews, so I knew I couldn’t miss Bennett’s debut! During my stay I had the pleasure of doing a little photo shoot with him...How cute is he?!

Another little one was born while we were home...Miss Grace Goodie Harris was born on April 1st. She is the daughter of our dear friends Tuff and Mary! They wanted to wait to see what they were having until the delivery, which made their entire pregnancy so exciting to me! I thought for sure Mary was going to have a boy lol...! We got to meet Grace and she is just so sweet!

Also while I was home I got to see my RMU buddies, Christa, Ashley and Shelby at the 17th Street Cafe...

It was also so nice to spend some time with some of my longest friends, Kate, Jaclyn, Kim and Palma over lunch at Bravo!

Not nearly as much fun, but equally as nice to see - lol - were Krista and Valerie when I went running with them...running solo with Valerie is not highly advised! She’ll kick your butt every time! 

I’m also happy we were able to be there to be at my nephew Blayze’s Art Show! He won 3rd place for his “Tempting Taco” and got honors for his “Little Mouse Flies Big” drawing.  

He is just growing up so fast...He turned 10 during our trip! We celebrated his Birthday on Easter. 

 

It’s so much fun seeing him turn into a young man. Many of his “little boy” characteristics are gone...which is bittersweet, but refreshing to see him growing up so much! An example of this was when he was giving some of his Easter Candy to his nieces and he said “I don’t need anything else, I’ve got everything that matters right here” and motioned to all of his family...so touching! Brought a tear to my eye!

We also celebrated my Dad’s 58th Birthday which was officially on April 17th. My favorite part of the celebration was the cake...LOL!

I love Easter with my family! My mom had her annual Easter Egg Hunt and Pinata...so much fun! The kiddos always enjoy it so much! Patrick and I had the honors of hiding the eggs :-) Below are some of my favorite pictures from the holiday...

  

 

 

 

Before we left Patrick was determined to go flying. He somehow talked my Dad into going with him - lol - my Dad who doesn’t like flying!! This is such a great photo of them!  

One of Patrick’s friends is going to be renting out place out. We know he will take real good care of it, but it’s still scary to leave our home in the hands of somebody else! We’ve poured so much love into that place, it’s hard to imagine someone else loving it as much as we do! We know he’s excited to be there, and I know it will make a great home for him! We can’t stay sad for long...we do have a new home to get moving into...! We close on our new home May 18th! Check it out!

Our home search was fairly easy. We only went out physically looking at homes two times before finding our new home! Once we found it, it was hard to get it out of our heads. We both pretty much knew from then on :-) It’s located in Franklin, Tennessee, which is just outside Nashville. It will take Patrick a little less than 30 minutes to get to and from work, which isn’t too bad. Going into the search we had a checklist of everything we wanted and this house has it all...how lucky are we?! 

1.) Patrick wanted to live on land...at least an acre. Our new home sits on a little over an acre, so his wish is granted...happy lawn mowing my love :-) 

2.) I wanted to live in a neighborhood...kinda a tall order considering my hubby wanted to live on a lot of land. Well, we are living in the neighborhood of Douglass Glen...how exciting we both got our wish! 

3.) Growing up in the South, Patrick wanted the master bedroom on the main floor...check! Most houses in the South are designed this way, so this wasn’t extremely hard to find. 

4.) Growing up in the North, I wanted a basement so very badly. Our realtor told us that basements are just becoming big in the South, so not many homes have them. I think we toured about 24 houses and only 3 of them had basements...one of them being our new home! It’s a pretty sweet basement too boasting a theatre room! I will share this picture because the former homeowners are leaving this rooms contents for us. I’ll spruce it up a little bit (AKA take down the Wedding Crashers - lol!) but for the most part it will look something like this...

5.) I’m a big fan of vaulted ceilings and we will have them in our new bedroom! Yay! 

6.) I’m also a fan of a jacuzzi tub and we scored one of those in our master bathroom as well! 

7.) I’ve ALWAYS wanted a double oven since the days of playing with the Barbie Dream Home...I will finally get to be just like Barbie! 

8.) Patrick wanted to live near water and we will have this view from our screened in porch...

A neighbor owns this pond...on our list of things to do is befriend them so we can fish in it - lol! Even if we can't fish...at least we get to sponge off their view...!

9.) Patrick wanted a pool...badly. Me, not so much...that is until I saw this pool...!

We are so looking forward to enjoying this pool this summer! Pool Party anyone?! It has three separate waterfalls, one of which comes from the hot tub. It also has a stone diving board. It goes up to 8 foot of water and is filled with salt water, which is a lot more low maintenance than a chlorine pool, or so they say. So excited to swim in this pool!!! Every workout I go to I think to myself "Do it for the pool!" 

May 18th can’t come soon enough! We are so excited to move and make this place our home :-) 

We'll keep you updated on the move. Right now we're just waiting to get in there. We got furniture for a few rooms ordered, but for the most part we are taking it slow. It surely isn't cheap outfitting an entire home so we are doing the essentials first and the rest will come with time. Things like area rugs and end tables completely overwhelm me right now! We bought a bedroom set, couch set, dining room set, and desk and chair... and I couldn't be happier with our selections! I've found that surprisingly Patrick and I have very similar tastes in furniture, which is a relief! We both seem to gravitate towards the same pieces...which in most cases is good for our relationship, but bad for our bank account eek! It's been fun though...we've enjoyed this layer of homeownership :-)

More to come in the coming weeks :-)